In no particular order and attributed to no one in particular for these purposes…

– Be less judgmental

– Get out of debt (for real this time)

– Quit smoking

– Get a job

– Prove that cigarette smoking is healthy in the New England Journal of Medicine

– Get married (just kidding!)

– Get a divorce (within reason… welcome to America)

– Be better about posting things of worth to my blog

– Listen to my heart

– Stop picking on [my boyfriend] for his clothes and oversized jackets

– Quit fucking smoking

– Get a job

– Keep things I’m proud of going (maintain)

– Figure it out (!!)

– Stop taking work so personally– less anxiousness and terror

– Continue to grow

– Live fearlessly

(an aside: I have no idea what the above picture was doing on my phone. I think it might have something to do with being intoxicated and feeling sorry for myself. And maybe a little bit curious about what happens to people’s taste when they get engaged: does it disappear overnight like their ability to make out with randoms on New Year’s and go to sleep when the sun comes up…?)

Over the course of this past week in Portland I traded in my yoga pants for jeans and put on a real bra exactly twice, and that was to walk 2 blocks to see movies (Beauty in Trouble, Czech dramedy, eh; Tell No One, French psychological thriller, oh so good!) and drink beer in the daytime dark at the Living Room Theater in the Pearl district (pictured). Between said movies, I… watched more movies on DVD, thanks to a sister with “industry” connections (Milk, Frost/Nixon, The Reader… something else good I can’t remember), downloaded a bunch of new music (new Killers, Carla Bruni and Horse Feathers, old Magnetic Fields, Miles Davis and Mates of State among others considerably more embarrassing), read a boatload of magazines, finished The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Ilosa and started Seven Types of Ambiguity, a 600 page tome I’d picked up and put back a dozen times since it came out and finally decided to tackle thanks to long lines and the conveniently located Bargain Buys stack (damn you Powell’s and your strategic merchandising)– in short, did little but play tennis, hang with the fam, and soak up a ton great film, music and reading material and it felt good. Makeup didn’t touch my face, my hair went dirtier than usual, even my ears got a break from being ravaged by cheap earrings. Isn’t this what Christmas is all about though? When else can you be a complete slob if not in the comfort of your family over the holidays in a northern, gray city after having your emotions put in a blender on puree?

My new favorite blog for style inspiration/holiday phone call procrastination– a French Sartorialist, but with added gorgeous close-ups. And you get to brush up on your French! http://www.garancedore.fr/

cool stuff abounds. find your way on, off and around the grid

I'm a writer and wide-eyed wanderer, culturemonger and experience collector. Born in New York and raised in Colorado, I've also lived in Sydney, France, Martinique and spent various random weeks and months exploring the spaces between. Possibly as a result, I'm not happy unless I'm on a plane twice a month going somewhere to discover something cool. This is where I'll attempt to collect and share some of the things I see in travel, design, retail, music, film, web, food, style. (I admit, focus has never been my strongsuit.)
Day jobs have included years at big city branding shops, little town magazines and a stint heading up marketing for an alternative law firm's San Francisco office. I still have a foot in that pretty little city but my heart resides in Manhattan.

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I'm also editrix-in-chief of TheDistillery, a marketing blog focused on media, design, and brands. It's a place where a bunch of stuff goes in and only the good stuff comes out. Drink up. DistilleryMedia.com.